DPRK vows to counter enemy nuclear threats with force

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will counter enemy nuclear threats with even more powerful nuclear attacks and mean it, a spokesman of DPRK Supreme Military Command said Thursday.

The spokesman was commenting on the U.S. move to dispatch B-52 bombers and nuclear-powered submarines to South Korea, saying U.S. warning messages and intimidation will not frighten the DPRK army and people.

He reminded the United States that "the Anderson Air Force Base on Guam where B-52 takes off and naval bases in Japan proper and Okinawa where nuclear-powered submarines are launched are within the striking range of the DPRK's precision strike means," according to the official KCNA news agency.

"Now that the United States started open nuclear blackmail and threat, the DPRK, too, will move to take corresponding military actions," the KCNA added.

Tensions have been running high on the Korean Peninsula since the DPRK conducted its third nuclear test on Feb. 12 as a countermeasure against the joint military drills of the United States and South Korea.

The DPRK also threatened to launch a preemptive nuclear strike for self-defense and unilaterally nullified the 1953 armistice that suspended the Korean War.